The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[Infinitron]

Yeah, I think TOW is mostly intentionally shallow parody and there are very few instances where it even attempts to "critique capitalism" in a modern way (though there are a few - Martin Callahan the brand-enslaved moon man, or the occasional mention of concepts like "marriage contracts").

 

[Yosharian]

Overrated as fuck and a fucking boring slog like the other two New Vegas DLCs I didn't like. Retardo holograms, fog and uninteresting hp bloat enemies. The crazy former BoS elder and not being able to grab all the gold were the only positive things about it that I remember. They should have done something like the Glow with it, having to figure out puzzles or make the ancient tech to work for some proper post-apoc experience. Or try to do an actual heist, assembling a crew and doing a (branching) plan that falls apart keeping you on your toes, aiming to rob the elder of the tech and gold he found. Instead we get some prisoner's dilemma bullshit and GHOST MEN, fuck that noise.

You can steal all the gold

 

[vortex]

If they make TOW2, which is very doubtful, they should leave politics out of question and start anew space adventure rpg.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Yeah, I think TOW is mostly intentional lulz parody and there are very few instances where it even attempts to "critique capitalism" in a modern way (though there are a few - Martin Callahan the brand-enslaved moon man, or the occasional mention of concepts like "marriage licenses").

What you ascribe to intentionality, I'd sooner blame on incompetence and on the devs' own narrow understanding of real world affairs which got transferred into this fictional setting.

But either way, I do not like this sort of zany humor. To those who do, more power to them.

 

[Infinitron]

What you ascribe to intentionality, I'd sooner blame on incompetence

Well I know what Leonard Boyarsky said: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...me-other-obsidian-developers-disagree.128539/

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

If the make TOW2, which is very doubtful, they should leave politics out of question and start anew space adventure rpg.

Yeah I don't think that that is likely to happen. It will either be set on the Halcyon colony or another system that is run by a corporation.

But either way, I do not like this sort of zany humor.

I think it has run its course, basically almost every comedy does it these days.
Question; what is the best way to describe it?

 

[Infinitron]

It seems likely to me that if there is a TOW 2, they will attempt to change things up by having some kind of more powerful Earth Directorate-affiliated faction alongside a corporation.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I have a feeling that if it was up to the writers — other than Starks — the game would be much more political. Also, the writing would be even worse.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

It seems likely to me that if there is a TOW 2, they will attempt to change things up by having some kind of more powerful Earth Directorate faction alongside a corporation.

I know it is just some wannabe-designer wishing but that was actually an idea I had for TOW, either the main game or a DLC; a more military style faction that would show up in the Halcyon system, discovers what a mess the Board had made of the place, and decides that it needs to take over.
I just never mentioned it as I felt that it might come over too much as the Enclave from Fallout 2.

 

[vortex]

Yeah I don't think that that is likely to happen. It will either be set on the Halcyon colony or another system that is run by a corporation.

Corporation just on the surface level. Players would be more engaged with supernatural, alien space adventure rather involving corporate business. Think of Warhammer Astartes with supernatural stuff from Star trek.

 

[jackofshadows]

They might've wanted to do a critique of capitalism (or rather 'corporatism' in the derogative sense of the word), but they've ended up crafting a caricature of it.

To make things worse, they did it at the expense of the setting itself. All these nonsensical solutions regarding food, meds and other basic stuff while you having interstellar travel and hibernation chambers doesn't help to suspend player's disbelief one bit. And all of that just to portray that caricature of corporations. Something tells me they've chosen these safe tools out of self-censorship, the game is so politically correct that's painful in hindsight.

 

[Bad Sector]

The main issue that I have with TOW's writing is that the themes it wanted to tackle were handled very poorly. They might've wanted to do a critique of capitalism (or rather 'corporatism' in the derogative sense of the word), but they've ended up crafting a caricature of it.

I do not think that making a caricature is bad by itself; it can work perfectly fine in a variety of situations. The issue with ToW is that they make that caricature and then have large parts of the game take it seriously. It has been a long time since i played it, but one thing that remained with me was that the entire game cannot decide if it wants you to take it seriously or not.

 

[DeepOcean]

Mar 17, 2021 at 1:24 PM - @Infinitron: If you look just at the writing, I think most characters in New Vegas could actually easily have been written by TOW writers (though it has a few standouts that TOW lacks)

PoE writing sucks.
PoE 2 writing sucks.
Outer Worlds writing sucks.

Hmmm... I prefer to trust more on historical evidence.

 

[LudensCogitet]

I do not think that making a caricature is bad by itself; it can work perfectly fine in a variety of situations. The issue with ToW is that they make that caricature and then have large parts of the game take it seriously. It has been a long time since i played it, but one thing that remained with me was that the entire game cannot decide if it wants you to take it seriously or not.

Like the line people seem to think is funny, when you bring Max the book he's been looking for (which is completely unprotected in an easily visible cave about 1000 yards from town, by the way). He looks at it and says "I can't read fucking French!"
When that happened I immediately thought... so? Does no one else speak French? That must not be true because Max immediately recognized it as French.
Max believes the contents of this book will help him unravel the nature of the Universe, which has been his life's work, but the fact that he can't read the (very common and real) language it's in is a complete dead end for him...
Is that supposed to be satire of some sort?

Oh, this is also the guy who completely changes his world view after getting stoned in a hut with some random guru woman once. Then he's about compassion and love, but still says "I'll take your confession now, biotch!" or whatever before gunning down strangers.

It's a mess.

 

[jackofshadows]

Oh, this is also the guy who completely changes his world view after getting stoned in a hut with some random guru woman once. Then he's about compassion and love, but still says "I'll take your confession now, biotch!" or whatever before gunning down strangers.

Ironically enough, in a game with couple of the same guys in charge, Virgil after whatever chosen path actually changed his combat taunts accordingly. Truly forgotten craft, impossible to restore.

In TOW you could also enter the first settlement in raider outfit on what the game actually has response but not as turret fire or attempt to arrest you but a meaningless reply from some guard. Riiight.

The ship's AI at first called you 'a maradeur' iirc but then all of a sudden was providing a full access to all systems.

The list obviously could go on and on. But wait, it's a video game so that shouldn't matter much, curb your sperging and shoot some stuff already! In that sense TOW comparable to such esteemed titles as Fallout 4, honestly. Same goes for 'it's a si-fi' so stop whining about things not making any sense.

 

[DeepOcean]

Also I really strongly disagree with this idea of the problem of Outer Worlds being a supposed lack of budget. The problem was never that there was only corporations in there, having few factions is a problem of budget, said factions being full of idiots is a question of retarded writing.

I'm talking of pure nonsense with corporations being depicted as retardly incompetent much beyond what would be expected from real human beings just to make them the butt of a joke that isnt funny. Outer worlds has this bizzarre take of trying to do comedy, failing hard at it and just falling flat on its face and undermining all the setting because you cant take any of that shit seriously. Did they realize that if corporations are depicted as completely incompetent bafoons, they lose all credibility as "villains", taking the setting with them? Also, the rebels arent much better in terms of retardation too. Nope, they didnt realize that because they are shit writers.

This theory of "the writers just suck because they dont have money" . Nigga, please, we are talking of the gaming industry here, budget isnt a shield for retardation, I thought that was crystal clear at this point.

 

[KVVRR]

Also I really strongly disagree with this idea of the problem of Outer Worlds being a supposed lack of budget. The problem was never that there was only corporations in there, having few factions is a problem of budget, said factions being full of idiots is a question of retarded writing.

I'm talking of pure nonsense with corporations being depicted as retardly incompetent much beyond what would be expected from real human beings just to make them the butt of a joke that isnt funny. Outer worlds has this bizzarre take of trying to do comedy, failing hard at it and just falling flat on its face and undermining all the setting because you cant take any of that shit seriously. Did they realize that if corporations are depicted as completely incompetent bafoons, they lose all credibility as "villains", taking the setting with them? Also, the rebels arent much better in terms of retardation too. Nope, they didnt realize that because they are shit writers.

This theory of "the writers just suck because they dont have money" . Nigga, please, we are talking of the gaming industry here, budget isnt a shield for retardation, I thought that was crystal clear at this point.

I'm currently playing the DLC (yes yes, I know) and within the first 15 minutes you get introduced to a tool you'll have to use through the whole DLC to find clues. You'd think your character could do this themselves, but whatever. The problem? This machine is apparently able to localize discrepancies within the TIMELINE (??????) to help you find clues or weird stuff around the colony. It's also made out of a doctor "Goodnight"'s dead husband brain. Nevermind that you could've had a more engaging system by having the player actively look for clues instead of giving you a tool that screams "HERE STUPID JUST LOOK HERE", it's like they don't even remember that the main plot revolves around nobody being able to find a solution to not being able to grow food.
You can remark that it's "just a magnifying glass" made out of scopes (get it cause you're a detective ha ha) but if you have the tech to implement (part) of someone's mind into a scope how do you realistically want me to believe you can't find a way to grow fucking veggies on some tubes or dirt or whatever?

And of course, of course, it has YET ANOTHER horrific experiment gone wrong by those evil, evil corpos. At the very least this one seems to have been the result of a lab team instead of a corpo-started project, though, and it's a bit more interesting than the last one's drug that would make you do anything with no downsides at all (lol). Also it makes use of the fact that the faces on the game can look a bit... weird.

Spoiler

I just hope that the killer isn't related to a corporation or something. please PLEASE don't let it be that

 

[Justicar]

Remember goyims this is what AAAA+ quality looks like.

This game is very prosperian this is what murican game industry is becoming the prosper dream factory just like the hollyjew. Meanwhile random npcs in Cyberbug 2079 look like this

 

[KVVRR]

Isn't Outer Worlds only AA tho

 

[DeepOcean]

This reminds me of you walking on a path made of neurons seeing the memories of the dude who killed your wife on Fallout 4.

Yeah, Obsidian is on Fallout 4 levels of retardation but people are coping hard thinking Microsoft money will solve their problems of being filled with has beens that just wanna retirement and danger hair millenial women.

 

[Yosharian]

Imagine thinking that TOW and Pillars 1/2 have good writing

 

[Justicar]

Isn't Outer Worlds only AA tho

Both Cyberbug 2079 and The outer trannies cost 60$ at the release tell me what difference does AA label make to the consumer if they still price this shit at 60$?

 

[KVVRR]

Isn't Outer Worlds only AA tho

Both Cyberbug 2079 and The outer trannies cost 60$ at the release tell me what difference does AA label make to the consumer if they still price this shit at 60$?

wait you actually paid for them?

 

[Justicar]

wait you actually paid for them?

Nope I never touched this trash just watched some vidoes to see how bad it is....

Anyway if both games cost the same its only fair to treat them as equals....

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if you see a white male with blond hair and blue eyes, he's the killer